On October 18th 2020, the “Showdown” between my business partner and student Harricane versus his biggest inspiration, my 7 Commandoz teammate Hongten just went down.

A lot of people have been talking about this all over the internet, giving their opinions about what went down, many people are asking me questions, so I wanted to make a vlog about this to Break Down my mixed emotions about the event.

Firstly, I need to clarify my involvement with this event. I in no way, shape or form had anything to do with the actual organization and production of the event, other than the actual concept and format of the show down, and being the global social media coordinator.   The entire event belonged to the Chiayi City Government, which is why you won’t see any OUR City Bboys logos or Dream Runnerz logos on any of the “official” event artwork.  The government hired Dream Runnerz as production staff to facilitate the event, and originally called the event “Capital of Street Dance” but later named the event Our City Bboys since the showdown concept was our idea.

Where I come in, is that for the past 10 years since moving to Asia, I’ve dedicated my career to solving the problem why Bboys can’t earn a proper living, so I created a business format to market “Showdowns” instead of “tournaments” to prove that regular people would want (and pay) to see a TRUE battle between two cities, and now between two Bboys (or Bgirls).

About two years ago, I came to Taiwan to work with the top crew “Dream Runnerz” to turn their Bboy crew into a professional, city bboy team, with a business plan that is based off building a huge local fan base and leveraging their fans to sponsors and government support.

So I really have to give it up to Dream Runnerz for they are the ones really putting in the legwork and executing the event, although at many times I feel that they could ask for my help and advice more.

For the record, I think the event was a success, although production wise there are many things that I would have done differently.  However it was a government event, therefore everything single thing needs to be approved.

For example, one of the things I wanted to change was the word “call out”, because although Harricane challenged Hongten, it was a call out to a “Showdown”, not a cypher battle, and I think Bboys already have their own definition of what a “call out” is, so I would of made it a point to differentiate between a battle, a call out, and exhibition and a Showdown. Terminology matters and I want Bboys and Bgirls to understand that a Showdown is the best of both worlds, an official competition AND a real battle like in a cypher.

I also think that a lot of more work could have been done for the build up to the main showdown as well as the stage and venue production, but perhaps that’s just my high standards from working for R16 World Championships from 2011 to 2016.

Nevertheless, this Showdown is another milestone for “The Plan” in the following ways.

#1 We wanted to prove that a Showdown format can draw a huge local crowd and international attention

The line for the event was crazy and the 1000 seater venue was packed to full capacity! Regular Bboy jams can barely get any general audience to come watch, which is fine because regular jams are more for the community to participate. But Showdowns are for the general audience and the fans, which is the lifeblood of any professional athlete/artist celebrity business.

#2 Set a standard for Bboys getting paid well

A lot of people are saying that Hongten didn’t get anything out of this, but I wanted to assure everyone that Hongten wouldn’t quarantine in Taiwan for 14 days, and another 14 days when returning to Korea for nothing.  I told Harricane that if he wanted Hongten to battle him, he needed to offer him a deal that he couldn’t refuse. Hongten agreed to a 5 figure deal. Yes, that is in USD, not taiwan dollars LOL.

Now what most people are wondering is, what did I think about the actual showdown itself.

Firstly, one of the things that I wanted to prove through this showdown format, is that in a real cypher battle, rounds tend to become shorter and straight to the point. That is why this this format is 3 minutes then a 90 second break to recharge. However, this back fired because of Hongten being absolutely inhuman.

In the cypher, there is a strategy called “Nickle and Diming” which is where you throw short but sweet rounds to tire out your opponent but having your little moves add up overall. Majority of skilled Bboys, when faced with a short round, would throw a short round in return to save stamina. But Hongten did something incredible, he continued to throw FULL sets the entire time! 35 full throwdowns is an absolute anomaly, considering he had only 10 second quick breaks from Harricane’s short runs. I can’t think of a single person who can do what Hongten did that night, but if there is someone, I’d pay good money to watch them go at it with Hongten in the same format. I talked to Hongten and he told me he knew that Harricane would throw short rounds, so his strategy was to take his time and do full rounds no matter what in order to make Harricane’s short rounds look ridiculous. This strategy completely blew my mind because when you think about it, if Hongten threw a short round, then he would of validated Harricane’s short rounds. Crazy!

One of the things that could have been presented better, is the OUR System that the showdown was being judged by. This version of the OUR System was judged battle by battle, so at the end of the 3 minute battle, the judges decide overall who won that category. However, despite me always saying that we need to use the OUR system icons, instead of the words Foundation, Originality, Dynamics, Execution and Cypher spelt in the Chinese language, I guess fair and transparent judging is always the last on priority list.

Using the OUR System is extremely important for the general audience and fans, because they need to know who is winning or losing in real time, but more importantly they instantly need to know WHY. And even if they don’t fully understand, they need to believe that the judging is fair and actually based on some type of standards, not just judges choosing whoever they “liked” better. If it was up to me, after every battle I would have announced each of the category winners ONE by ONE, in the same way we did at the R16 World Finals.

With that being said, people watching the livestream who didn’t know we are using the OUR system are probably wondering why and how there could have been any ties given, and how I personally could have voted for Harricane in the Battle Round number 2. To be clear, I was judging the “CYPHER / BATTLE” category which is probably the most misunderstood and forgotten perspective in Breakin today.

The purpose of this category is preserve the original approach to battling in the cyphers, which was simply about humiliating your opponent with the intent to “bust egos”, by cleverly responding to whatever the opponent does. Essentially, the cypher is about the conversation which many bboys and bgirls who grew up in the competition era, may have a difficult time understanding if they have never truly battled with beef in a cypher to the death.

I’ve rewatched the 2nd battle and I still stand by my conviction that Harricane won the cypher perspective, but only for battle #2 in particular. Hongten won 4 battles and i believe I tied two. I made a quick video to explain what went on through my head for that particular battle.

What Hongten was saying after Round #6

Now a lot of people have been asking me what Hongten said to the judges after Battle Round #6. After getting the okay from Hongten to publicly repeat what he said, I’ll try to explain what he said and why, the best way I can.

As many people probably figured out, at first Harricane was doing quick response rounds in order to weaken or gas out Hongten. But after a while, he soon realized that Hongten wasn’t getting tired so he tried to do long last throwdown rounds in order to compensate but instead started gassing out himself. Even though he trained for 12 battles, nobody could have been ready for what Hongten pulled off that night.  So eventually Harricane began doing short rounds out of necessity, while Hongten continued to do full throwdowns each and every time.

As long as I’ve known the humble monster Hongten, there’s only one thing an opponent should avoid at all time, and that is making Hongten angry.

As I stated above, Hongten told me his strategy was to do long sets even though he knew Harricane would do short sets. He figured that doing long sets would force Harricane to do longer rounds instead of Hongten being drawn into doing short short rounds. So being frustrated by Harricane not doing longer rounds, he came over to me after round 6 and said something like

It’s fine if Harricane wants to do my moves but what the &%#*!  This isn’t BREAK the game! He should be doing his own move too.

Later on, Hongten apologized to me to explain he was just frustrated, and I told him I totally understand. Actually I feel partially to blame because short quick cypher rounds is a strategy that Harricane picked up from me by watching all my last battles where I got called out. For the past year, Harricane has been rampaging through Taiwan destroying all his haters in the cyphers. This probably gave him a sense of confidence when going up against his hero Hongten. But in hindsight, perhaps I should have explained to him that my short response rounds comes as defense where my main argument when battling in a cypher is… “Atleast I have my own style and you are doing all my moves!” Thus this particular strategy couldn’t work for him against his hero and main inspiration, Hongten.

Overall, Harricane knew that he was going to lose, but I don’t think anyone knew that it would of been this bad. A straight 7-0 for Hongten, many Bboys are already talking about there should be Knock-Out rule, where if someone gets beat 5 categories straight, or atleast two battles in a row, the showdown should end.

In many ways, I feel for Harricane, as a loss like that will either make you better or end your career. Many Bboys in my 90’s generation I’ve seen quit after getting roasted. The ones who remained only got stronger. But I wanted to take a moment to present a totally different perspective.

Harricane knew he was going to lose, but like me, he sacrificed his career, for the betterment of the global Bboy culture.

What I mean by sacrificed his career, is that Harricane and the Dream Runnerz built an amazing Bboy battle business based on his massive local fan base which we built over the past 3 years of working on “The Plan”.  Being the leader of his crew, he already has sacrificed so much of his time and energy in becoming a real Bboy entrepreneur. If you want to be the best of the best, you need to give everything to your Breakin, and it’s the reason why I sacrificed my competitive career in order to solve the economic problems which have plagued our community.

Me, Harricane and many others have been talking about how much Bboyin seems like it is dying, and everyone is putting their hopes into the Olympics. However, without a new vision for the culture, our fate may end up like the 80’s and mid 2000’s in Korea when the 3rd mainstream wave (and death) comes… and goes.  Harricane had a choice, battle someone more on his level, beat them and please his fan base who ultimately pay his bills, OR battle his hero Hongten, possibly risk losing his local fanbase and sponsor support, but inspire the international Bboy community by allowing everyone to witness this 1 vs 1 showdown format.

Harricane knew that in order to make this showdown not only happen and sell out the tickets in a matter of a few hours, but to get nearly the entire global Bboy community invested to watch this, he would need to call out Hongten with the utmost confidence and create the type of buzz that is needed.

Harricane leveraged his massive following, Dream Runnerz resources and ultimately utilized his sponsors and connections to offer Hongten a  5 figure deal he couldn’t refuse, and very much deserves.  How many other Bboys would be able to pull off something like this? While I have been working with him and guiding him, he was the one to do this and make it happen, risking everything for what?

ANSWER: It’s to chase the dream that Bboyin will one day, be as big as skateboarding or MMA.

let me end with this… If Pro-bboys were ever going to get paid in the same level as pro-skaters, MMA fighters or Boxers, this would require a format that could conclusively prove who is truly the king of kings… and at this moment, it’s HONGTEN

edit: One more positive outcome of this Showdown despite the mismatch, is that nobody can claim that it’s just a show and that the results aren’t real. Dream Runnerz as a team has been undefeated in the Show Down team vs team format and a few Bboys were claiming that the results are already determined. Despite there being a huge show element to this, the actual battles itself and the results are REAL! 

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